While residential and commercial developers across Central Florida struggle to fill empty space, available spots in Waterford Lakes are filling up fast. The reason, according to commercial consultant David Marks of Maitland’s Marketplace Advisors, is their proximity to Waterford Lakes Town Center. “The Waterford Lakes area is tremendously successful for commercial space because it is home to a regional shopping destination,” he said.
“The whole corridor started from scratch — not a lot of retail square footage but a lot of residents. Now that people want to live and visit, they need other amenities like business offices and medical.” Thirty percent of the professional space at the Lake Underhill Business Center, located near Lake Underhill Road and Alafaya Trail, sold pre-construction before opening earlier this month.
Igor Andrade, manager of Norbridge Properties which owns the plaza, said professional space is selling much faster than the retail space within the company’s nearby Alafaya Business Center. “That plaza is going well, not very well,” he said.
The Alafaya Business Center is 75 percent sold, but Andrade said many of the owners have kept their spaces empty. Marks considers Waterford a pod, meaning an area where residents have everything they need — shopping, employment, medical services — within five miles of their home. He said there are 10 pods in Orlando and Waterford is the only one in East Orlando.
“All commercial and residential drive each other,” Marks said. “You have many people living there who want to shop where they live, work where they live, and go to the doctor where they live.” Legacy Place, another mixed-use plaza on the corner of Lake Underhill and Rouse roads, sold 20 percent of its space to attorneys, engineers, an insurance company and several medical professionals since opening this month.
“A lot of our customers have offices downtown but they live here. They not only want something closer to their home but their clients’ homes as well,” said project broker Ray Romano. He said the owner is not opposed to building retail space, as long as it’s not retail geared to drive-by traffic.
Once the 14-acre plaza is complete and filled, a coffee shop, restaurant and dry cleaners are all possible retail options to serve those working and visiting the plaza. “We have been approached by a lot of different types of users, from fast-food restaurants to gas stations, but we are being selective.
We want the businesses to complement one another,” he said. Waterford Park at Waterford Lakes, another commercial plaza on the corner of Alafaya Trail and Lake Underhill Road, is also sticking to professional space with plans for a few complementary retail businesses like a coffee shop.
Cadio Club Express, which could open this year, will draw in some road traffic but is also meant to serve plaza employees and customers. Like Romano, Waterford Park Senior Vice President Jean Amm said retail businesses have approached them but the center is staying with professional office space.
Currently about 12 spaces are filled within the 110,000-square-foot building. The total number of spaces will not be available until the building is completed because space size is cut at the tenant’s request. Amm said the project could be finished and filled by the end of 2008. “I really do not think commercial is being affected as much as people say — at least not in this area.
Waterford is doing good,” he said. The effects of the slowdown on the retail market have been apparent at Stoneybrook Marketplace, located on South Alafaya Trail. The project was completed in fall 2007 but has just two committed parties — NYPD Pizza and Couture Nails.
Michael Battey, CB Richard Ellis associate, said there are a few informal commitments from restaurants, hair salons and a jazz/wine bar, but nothing has been finalized. “You cannot expect to fill it up very quickly with the way the market is and its location far down on Alafaya Trail,” he said.
“Leasing is different depending on the location and anchors in the plaza, but you always try to pre-lease at least 50 percent of the project. This is never easy, but we always accomplished it before the slowdown.” Although deals are slow-moving Battey said there seems to be a great need for entertainment in the area, considering the amount of young families and couples who live nearby.
“There is a lot of interest in this project on the consumer side. Alot of people are calling and checking our Web site,” he said. Marks said the plazas that keep sprouting up in East Orlando and beyond are not always an indication of prosperity. In fact, many of these projects were approved and financed before the real estate slowdown.
“The commercial industry is following the residential market, but it has not been nearly as severe and we probably will not see the same reduction in value as residential properties,” he said.
